Why Is The American Dream Important In The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St.Paul, Minnesota. Fitzgerald was considered a bright, handsome, and an ambitious boy who had many dreams of his own. He was the pride and joy of his parents, especially his mother. At his early age, he was taught of the upper class even though his family did not have the financial means to live in that way. Fitzgerald started writing at an early age. His detective stories were published in his high school newspaper which highly encouraged him to pursue writing more enthusiastically. Later, he dropped out of the Princeton University in order to pursue his obsession of writing magazine articles (A Brief life of Gatsby). At 21 years of age, Fitzgerald submitted his first novel for publication
but it was rejected with great words of encouragement which highly inspired him to rewrite it. It got published a year later after he wrote it for the third time. His publication became extremely famous due to which he suddenly became a rich and a famous author. Fitzgerald eventually proved to be a great student and a very successful athlete in a young age. As a result, he was promising and a popular young man. He had an unique interest in literature (A Brief life of Gatsby).
The known influences on Fitzgerald were aspiration, literature, Princeton, and Zelda which led him to be one of the great writers of his time.
By 1960, he had achieved a secure place amongst America’s enduring writers. His most famous work, The Great Gatsby, examines the theme of aspiration in an unique American setting and is also defined as the classic American novel. Fitzgerald’s life is tragic example of both the sides of the American Dream which consists of the joys of young love, wealth, and success, and some of the tragedies associated with excess and failure. However, Fitzgerald died believing himself a big failure (American Writers: F. Scott
Fitzgerald).
Many of the events from Fitzgerald’s life appear in his most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, which was published in 1925. Just like Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is a sensitive young man who idolizes wealth and luxury and falls in love with a beautiful young woman. Having become a famous celebrity, Fitzgerald fell into a reckless lifestyle of parties while desperately trying to impress and please Zelda by writing to earn huge amount of money. Similarly, Gatsby acquires a great deal of wealth at a very young age. He also devotes himself to acquiring possessions and throwing parties as he believes that those parties and showing off his wealth to the world will help him win Daisy’s love. Like Fitzgerald, Gatsby was driven by his love for a woman who symbolized everything he wanted (A Brief life of Gatsby).
Many of the characters in The Great Gatsby are very badly behaved. Nobody is found to be decent in this novel. They are extremely greedy, lustful, vengeful, and immoral. Each character in the novel demonstrates a different and a unique set of values and seems to be in various different stages of personal moral development. Almost every character in the book lies to the other characters. There is very little concern for the repercussions of these lies in general. In fact, dishonesty sometimes makes their characters more appealing in the book (American writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald).
All the main characters in “The Great Gatsby” are somehow connected to one another. Fitzgerald intentionally delays the reader’s meeting with one of the main character, Gatsby, to build a unique sense of mystery. The very first glimpse of Gatsby is when he is seen mysteriously reaching out to the green light which exists across the bay.Daisy will attend them. Gatsby is shown to be completely obsessed to his love for Daisy Buchanan. He eventually throws elaborate parties, hoping that one day Not only that, he also sets up the meeting with her at Nick’s house, where his obsessiveness is clearly seen with his answer of “Five years next November,” which refers to how long it had been since he had last met Daisy. Later on in the story, his criminal side and willingness to go to any length to obtain Daisy is revealed through his criminal dealing to obtain a large amount of money, which is seen clearly in his meeting with Wolfsheim. Later on, Fitzgerald later fills in the gaps about Gatsby’s part while generating great sympathy from the readers. Fitzgerald uses the technique of delayed character revelation to emphasize the quality of Gatsby’s approach to his life (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby).
There are plenty of conflicts in the novel which is undoubtedly one of the reasons why the novel has remained so popular over time. Internal conflict is a conflict in which a character experiences within his own mind, heart, or conscience. One major internal conflict is the one that Gatsby has with his own past. He has a very unhealthy obsession with his past when he was once too poor to marry Daisy, whom he loved. While it is shown that Daisy has moved on with her life while Gatsby has not. In the novel, he goes to great lengths to win Daisy’s love once again. He wants Daisy to come back in his life. Gatsby is so enchanted with everything that Daisy represent; whether it be money or lust. He is shown to be chasing a dream that is long over (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby). There are many literary devices used in the novel which highlights different aspects of the story.
In The Great Gatsby, there is a constant fixation with a green light which exists directly across Gatsby’s house. The green light creates a sense of desire, hope, and some kind of motivation to achieve a goal. As a part of the story, Daisy provides the green light in Gatsby’s life. But a sense of yearning can be clearly found in many of the characters. and the color green resonates in many aspects of the characters’ lives. Green also relates to be a symbol for money and greed which may be proved as the desire to achieve something is encouraged by the yearning or some kind of pressure to become extremely rich. During the 1920s money meant so much as it provided as means to distinguish status. Additionally, green conjures thoughts of jealousy as well as envy. Everyone in this world wants something they don’t have. As a result, they resent others out of their jealousy. Colorful symbolism in The Great Gatsby is like an ambition that is driven by jealousy, which if often driven by money and greed (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great
Gatsby). Structure of the novel is highly influenced by Foreshadowing. “Suppose you met somebody……. why I like you” (Fitzgerald, pg. 63). During this time of the novel, Jordan is explaining to Nick about how she is able to drive badly as long as everyone else drives very carefully. This quote represents foreshadowing about Daisy killing Myrtle Wilson because of her lack of attention and reckless driving. Fitzgerald uses foreshadowing to strengthen the plot of his novel. Fitzgerald uses foreshadowing to the best of his ability to help him organize his novel. “Luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers and set it back in place. I’m sorry about the clock,’ he said. ‘It’s an old clock,’ I told him idiotically” (Fitzgerald, pg.92). This quote foreshadows all the trouble that Gatsby causes as he tries to win Daisy back in his life. The past seems to be represented by the clock and how Gatsby wants to repeat it with Daisy. This quote also foreshadows to the end of the novel when Nick is the one who is left to tell the story of the dreamer whose dreams were eventually corrupted. All the characters in this novel do not stay true to their values and morals. They all cheat and lie all because of money. In the end, it is shown that every character dies either mentally or physically. Money takes over everything in their lives to a point where nothing else mattered. They failed to realize that money is not everything; it cannot buy happiness. Having too much money can also cause those who abuse it to feel superior and lose the real meaning of their own life. It is very sad that every generation in today’s world has at least one Tom, one Daisy, one Mrytle, and one Gatsby. And it also contains those people who develops greediness in them. Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a perfect example of the danger of foregoing one’s morals and values for the love of money.